Desktop-to-Desktop Gigabit per Second Wide Area Network Speed
Record
Using Windows2000 tcp/ip and Commodity Hardware.
Jennifer Todd, Waggener Edstrom/Microsoft, jtodd@wagged.com,
425-637-9097
David Richardson, University of Washington, drr@u.washington.edu,
206-543-2876
Karen Green, NCSA/Alliance, kareng@ncsa.uiuc.edu, 217-265-0748
Susan Brandt, ResearchTV, sbrandt@u.washington.edu,
212-414-4672
Lisa Young, Sony Electronics, lisa.young@am.sony.com,
408-955-5683
Jacqueline Brown, P/NWGP, jbrown@cac.washington.edu,
206-685-6238
For info on the demo’s network aspects see: www.washington.edu/hdtv/sc99/net
and /papers/Win2K_1Gbps_Press_Release.htm
(this document)
and /papers/Win2K_1Gbps.doc
(an overview of the 1Gbps demo)
PORTLAND, Oregon, November 15, 1999 -- Seven high technology leaders collaborated at SC99 today to set
a number of Internet speed records, demonstrating
that long-distance gigabit-per-second networking is ready for prime
time and that next generation Internet technologies and >capabilities are emerging in applications, in
end-systems, and in network
infrastructure.
To set the stage, at the network infrastructure level, the
DARPA-sponsored National Transparent
Optical Network (NTON), the University of Washington-led Pacific/Northwest Gigapop (P/NWGP), GST
Telecommunications, and Nortel Networks joined forces to deliver 2.4 gigabits per second (Gbps) of packet-over-SONET based standard
Internet capacity from the Microsoft Corp.
and University of Washington (UW) campuses, through a shared point of presence at the
Pacific/Northwest Gigapop in Seattle, to the SC99 exhibition hall in Portland.
Microsoft, the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance), the University of Washington (UW) and
Sony (in support of the ResearchTV consortium)
demonstrated two working, real-time gigabit applications in their coordinated SC99
exhibits. Further, the UW, Microsoft,
the Alliance and Sony were
able to run these applications concurrently, setting a >record of 2 Gbps in aggregate throughput—by a
wide margin clearly the fastest
real-time applications ever run over a wide area network.
Earlier this year, the UW and Sony were the first to demonstrate live studio quality, High Definition
Television (HDTV) broadcasts over Internet2/Abilene.
Today, in another record-breaking effort, they and the >partnership successfully transmitted a real-time
gigabit HDTV stream of five
simultaneous channels of minimally-compressed, studio-quality HDTV over the internet, using
industry-standard HDTV video, ‘Wintel’ computer systems, and networking equipment from leading vendors
such as Juniper. Each channel within the overall
stream consumed more than 200 million-bits-per-second
(Mbps), for a total of well over a billion-bits-per-second
in concurrent throughput in a state-of-the-art real-time application.
”More than just showing the stunning quality and immediacy that next generation internet capabilities
can bring to the desktop computers, TV’s and HDTV’s around the world, this demonstration illustrates the
feasibility of regularly
using Internet transport technology for the real-time delivery of extraordinarily high quality
video, virtual reality, tele-medicine,
and other imaging streams” said UW Vice President Ron >Johnson.
He added that the demonstration shows “it is now possible to run distributed broadband applications
over high-speed, next generation Internet
WANS using hardware and software available in the consumer market”. The demo used broadcast and Internet standards, Sony’s suite of HDTV gear, off-the-shelf
networking equipment, and commodity PCs with Microsoft NT running custom high performance software
the UW C&C group developed
using Microsoft Visual Studio and other tools.
By way of comparison, the UW/Sony/ResearchTV demonstration is the equivalent of the simultaneous
transmission of the entire channel lineup of a 150 channel cable TV system, or of 50 channels of
broadcast quality HDTV, five
feature movies, or interactions among a large number of >high-resolution video walls, shared virtual
realities, &/or immersive environments.
And, it shows that the internet is capable of speeds and quality impossible to achieve with
traditional broadcast technologies.
Microsoft and the Alliance and the partners demonstrated that it is now
possible to send a
gigabit-per-second TCP/IP stream from one Windows 2000 >workstation to another over a WAN. Microsoft teamed with the Alliance’s NT cluster development team and
with the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) to verify that Windows 2000 TCP/IP
software performance scales
at Gbps rates on long-distance networks. This work demonstrates speed breakthroughs in end-to-end
workstation internetworking and
shows the capabilities of Windows 2000 TCP/IP.
”Our role in NLANR is to work with application teams to help them
harness the capabilities of
high performance networks,” said Larry Smarr, director >of the Alliance and NCSA, the leading-edge site
for the Alliance. “Because many
of these applications involve Windows workstations, gigabit per second performance of Windows over
wide area networks is a capability that impacts the entire high performance computing community.”
Jim Allchin, senior vice president of the Platforms Division at
Microsoft Corp., said this
demonstration showed that distributed computing over high-speed, long-distance networks is a major part of
the future for the Windows
OS. “This exhibition shows that Windows
2000 truly is a broadband operating
system prepared for the next millennium.
Microsoft is thrilled that
Windows 2000 is able to display its gigabit-readiness through such a tremendously innovative
engineering feat.”
Ed Lazowska, Chair of UW’s Computer Science & Engineering
Department, added that
“enabling gigabit networking capabilities on what will >eventually be tens of millions of desktops is the
first step in unleashing
developers worldwide to create the next generation of >applications, architectures and content.”
Together, these collaborative demonstrations show that the era of gigabit-per-second networking and
the next generation of Internet applications
and content is at hand.
The joint demonstrations will continue throughout the rest of SC99. For
demonstration times, visit
the Alliance research booth (R300) or the joint demo booth (RE602), or to see the demonstrations go to
the UW research booth
(RE602) where the suite of coordinated demos are being run.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business
computing. The company offers a wide range
of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and
on any device. Microsoft and Windows are
either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other
countries. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective
owners. See http://www.microsoft.com/Windows2000.
The National Computational Science Alliance is a partnership to
prototype an advanced computational
infrastructure for the 21st century and includes more than 50 academic, government
and industry research partners from across
the United States. The Alliance is one of two partnerships funded by the National Science
Foundation’s Partnerships for Advanced Computational
Infrastructure (PACI) program, and receives cost-sharing at partner institutions. NSF also
supports the National Partnership for Advanced
Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The National
Center for Supercomputing Applications is
the leading-edge site for the Alliance. NCSA is a leader in the development and deployment of
cutting-edge high-performance computing, networking, and information technologies. The National Science
Foundation, the state of
Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal agencies fund
NCSA. http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
The University of Washington is one of the world’s leading research institutions. While the UW has
great strength in a comprehensive array of disciplines and professions in technical and
non-technical realms, it is especially
well known for its world class programs in computer science and the health sciences, and for its
long and continuing role in the evolution of the Internet, Internet messaging technologies, software
agents, and digital
convergence in new media. For more information see www.washington.edu/hdtv/sc99
ResearchTV is a consortium of many of the world’s leading research institutions that is dedicated to
providing greater, much more timely, and far broader access to progress in, and the findings and
outcomes of university,
government and corporate R&D efforts. In partnership with UCAID ResearchTV also conducts
core Internet2 (www.internet2.edu) broadcast
and high-speed demand video initiatives. For more information see http://www.washington.edu/researchtv
Sony Electronics is the premier provider of leading-edge digital video technology for broadcast, production
and HDTV, as well as exceptional quality
consumer electronics, computer, and display products. The University of Washington and Sony
have partnered successfully to pioneer HDTV
over Internet capabilities. For more information, see www.sony.com/professional
The Pacific/Northwest Gigapop is the northwest’s next generation
Internet applications
cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. PNWGP connects universities as well as research
institutions and R&D enterprises throughout
Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Oregon, to one another, to the next generation Internet
backbones (including vBNS, Internet2/Abilene
and now NTON), to federal research networks, and to super-high-performance commodity internets. For more information, see http://www.pnw-gigapop.net/.
The National Transparent Optical Network links government, research and
private sector labs and
provides the ability to interface with most of the broadband research networks in the U.S. NTON is a 2000
km 10-20 Gbps Wavelength
Division Multiplexed network deployed using in-place commercial fiber. NTON provides direct access
to nearly all of the major universities on the West Coast at data rates up to, and potentially beyond,
2.5 Gbps. For more
information, see http://www.ntonc.org